Escaping the New Year Air Pollution: Pranjetto Hills, Tanay, Rizal
Happy New Year to all! We had a happy new year 2011 by escaping the Metro Manila Air Pollution. On December 31, 2010 after lunch we drove up the Sierra Madre mountains, past the street market traffic at Cogeo Antipolo, then past Boso boso, then past the Sierra Madre hotel and into Pranjetto Hills in Tanay Rizal. This was our 2nd consecutive new year in Pranjetto Hills. Sierra Madre mountains are nearer to us, just 1.5 hours away. It is NOT crowded at all. The mountain air is super clean. Mountain nature at its best.
This time we had better accommodations. We got cottage 101 in the new development at the back. 5 beds for 3,000 pesos for that evening. We arrived past 3pm and checked out at 9am. New in this cottage was a toilet seat! Amazing. And they had television for those who are TV addicts, it has Dream TV satellite TV. They had 2 decent swings. There was a new zip line but no operator, it’s a holiday. There was a very nice nature trail, walk up and down the hills, very very nice, we walked for at least an hour the morning of January 1, 2011. The valley view was that of Laguna de Bay.
We celebrated the December 31 afternoon by flying kites! The day before in December 30 we bought 4 big kites. We had 2 batman kites and 2 eagle kites. The eagle kites sucked. They need long heavy tails added to them to stabilize their flight. The batman kites were very good. They flew mostly straight and maximized our kite line.
At dinner 6:30pm my wife kids and the Nannie had some cooked beef teriyaki and organic white rice. Teriyaki is made with honey, fermented and brewed soy sauce, garlic plus the sliced beef. I had my raw beef steak. I forgot to bring scissors so I had to use my hands and teeth, which was easy. But my wife thought was a turn off. I brought some Yakult probiotics for the kids. We also brought with us some more supplies like 4 raw duck eggs for my breakfast, 10 boiled duck eggs for them all, some sliced watermelon, a papaya, and some saba bananas.
After dinner we flew some rubber band sling shot lighted twirling missiles. The best new year present ever. For only 10 pesos each. It has a switch that turns on a blue light. You launch the large plastic dart like shaped missile with the rubber band into the air. The shape of the tail you bend a little forces the thing to twirl around. Much fun. It was cold in the mountain. But we had 6 reusable missiles with us, even my wife launched some, and the kid of one of the care takers joined in the fun. We had a blast with kiddie: Ready, Aim, Fire for around 30 minutes in the cold.
And then it was time for bed at around 8pm.
After a light breakfast of boiled eggs and water melon, mine were raw duck eggs, we went on an hour long morning hike. Scenic. Lots of pictures.
After 9am we checked out of Pranjetto Hills and drove out further into the Sierra Madre mountains looking for that old natural spring pool. We were enjoying the view, it was drizzling, and getting foggy. We had driven 30 kilometers and then called it quits, no pool yet so we drove back.
On the way back we passed by what I thought read like JC Camp, but then found out it was JE Camp. Found out it was Joseph Estrada or Joseph Ejercito Camp, the vacation camp of the former president Erap and also where he was under house arrest for some time. Wow, nice find! Maybe next time we should try staying here for the new year.
We got back home around 12:30pm kids were very hungry. I was hungry. Good lunch waiting for us. Lamb! They got seared lamb, I got raw lamb. Very good, very fatty.
My wife was hesitant to go up the mountains saying the forecast was for rain so there may not be much fireworks. But we pushed on ahead with our escape plans. Hey, we’ve been escaping metro manila new year air pollution for some 10 years already, it’s a family tradition.
The news from the maids were… we made the right choice. As usual, they taped up with old newspapers all the windows. But they forgot one small window by the stairs. A neighbor had very loud videoke running beginning 6pm with very bad voices, a Chinese neighbor began the loudest firecrackers 10pm all throughout past 12 midnight, another neighbor in front had a lot of fountains spewing tons of smoke and another neighbor in front also blew lots of judas belt type of firecrackers. The home village was engulfed in total smoke until 9:30am. My father in law was not able to do his 6am jog because there was no visibility. We arrived 12:30pm and all smoke had cleared at this time.
It’s a good thing we pushed through. I’d hate to see asthma suffering complaints from my wife and possibly the kids if they had stayed home for the new year evening fireworks and pollution. Setting off your own fireworks, the risk of getting injured, and wallowing in the air pollution is just not worth it. It’s madness why people set off their own fireworks. I’d read enough, spent enough, experienced enough of the madness and we’ve had enough. I saw my aunt get burned by a misfiring roman candle, my wife’s entire family witnessed her cousin blow off his entire right hand with a crying cow that went boom, I had a close encounter with a 5 star blowing just as I threw it, maybe 2 inches away from my hand, and taking out smoke black buggers from your nose is not fun. For asthmatics like my wife, gasping for breath isn’t fun.
So please stop blowing your own fireworks. Just let the professionals do it and watch it in your favorite local town official display or mall or condo. I’d seen enough of the global fireworks competitions and they are spectacular, you can’t imitate that ever by yourself. We got some torotots / horns, 3 pesos a piece.
Happy New Year 2011!
Pranjetto Hills information:
Sitio Mayagay, Sampaloc, Tanay, Rizal
Tel: 02-401-5995
Email pranjettohills@yahoo.com
1/2″ Gash At Top of Head Healed With Various Cayenne Forms, No Stitches Needed
Our 7 year old boy Mish figured in an accident this aftenoon. We were having a grand family reunion party and there were a lot of children and a lot of running. My wife and I were enjoying the festivities when my sister in law called out to us that Mish was crying and bleeding profusely from the top of his head, figured in some kind of accident no one really saw.
Three of us came to a quick rescue: Me, my wife, my wife’s cousin and MD pediatrician Dr. Gindra. In calm but swift movements, I got all 3 forms of cayenne we got in the kitchen: cayenne tincture, dried cayenne bits, cayenne fine powder. My wife comforted our crying boy. Dr. Gindra put pressure on Mish’s head with a towel.
It was hard for us to discern where exactly the gash / open wound was in a head full of hair. So I just scattered a lot of dried cayenne bits at the general location of the bleeding. Then it seemed that the cayenne bits were too big to penetrate through the thick head of hair, I poured a lot of cayenne tincture in the general area of the injury. We finally saw the 1/2 inch gash wound. Then decided to dump a lot of fine cayenne powder which would surely penetrate through the full head of hair. Then Dr. Gindra continued to put pressure with a towel on top of our boy’s head.
Complication was some cayenne got into Mish’s eyes so he was crying and in pain not only from his head injury but also from his eyes burning with cayenne. My wife got some water and washed his eyes thoroughly. In a few minutes there was some relief and his eyes were no longer in pain. Mish did feel some pain with the cayenne tincture and the cayenne powder but that quickly subsided to nothing in some 10 minutes. We tied a hanky at the top of his forehead to safeguard his eyes from falling cayenne powder from his head.
Mish was later watching the performances. Then he was in an eating junk food party binge with some limited cake and some limited ice cream which we monitor and allow from time to time, this is the grand family reunion that happens once a year.
Then in the early evening Mish was gleefully punching and kicking at some empty boxes. Seems the boy is well now.
Mish was able to tell me how his accident happened. He says he was walking or maybe running after a cousin and he stubbed his right foot at the soil just before the step and posts. He fell and banged the top of his head at the corner of the post.
Mish took a short bath with a dipper and just wet himself neck down. Drying up he now made faces.
Just about to sleep he put on a kind of plastic bonnet so that the cayenne bits from his head don’t make a mess and fall all over the bed.
The lesson in this accident treatment addressing is:
– it pays to be prepared with the materials you need to treat accidents, in this case we had 3 forms of cayenne at home
– don’t panic, have a well laid out, well rehearsed plan of action which at this time was to comfort, treat with cayenne, apply pressure
– observe the patient, don’t let him sleep, wait a few hours to see that there is no brain damage
The result was, no stitches needed. The wound will heal itself and seal itself with the help of cayenne. No infection will be possible as the cayenne tincture already took care of disinfecting with the vodka / ethyl alcohol content in it.
Superior healing with cayenne yet again. No stitches needed. See our gallery of pictures for this gash treatment with cayenne.
Genetically Modified Eggplants in UP Uprooted on order from Davao City Government
Awesome! A government body that is working for the benefit of the people. Genetically modified eggplants were being planted by UP-Mindanao. Due to some technicality, they were ordered uprooted. How about going further and pass an ordinance never to plant those horrid unnatural corporate freaks that have historically contaminated crops, decimated land, injured animals, injured people and impoverished peoples by funneling a monopoly towards a giant genetically modified organism company?
DAVAO CITY — The University of the Philippines (UP)-Mindanao complied with an order from the city government issued last week requiring the uprooting of genetically modified eggplants under field testing inside the campus at this city’s Mintal district, about 20 kilometers from downtown.
The uprooting came about after Mayor Sara Z. Duterte-Carpio ordered the halting of field testing after receiving a report from Leonardo R. Avila III, head of the City Agriculturist’s Office, that the state university failed to comply with basic requirements set by the city and the Bureau of Plant Industry particularly on public consultations on the field trial.
Read more at http://www.bworldonline.com/main/content.php?id=23146
GM crops are not about feeding more people. GM crops are all about modifying crops to establish a MONOPOLY. A monopoly of fertilizers, a monopoly of herbicides, a monopoly in seeds and saplings. The same disaster that brought you patent medicine, is the same pattern that will bring in disaster with patent crops. Patent plants? Patented living things? That’s grotesque!
My health opinion is to stay away from genetically modified “food”. Never ever consume genetically modified “food”. Do not be a lab rat experiment to consume “new” man made freaks our ancestors never ate.
US TSA Comedy: Give Me Molestation over Radiation
There is a lot buzz going about the US TSA madness going on. At first people were complaining about the radiation of the powerful see through x-ray machines. Lately people are complaining about the groping choice. But if it were me choosing health versus molestation, give me groping molestation any time.
I don’t know about you guys, but security guards patting you on your body is common place in my country, in malls, in banks, and on trains. I will survive a little pat or a little groping, but I may not survive too many x-ray exposures. So the next time I travel to the USA, I choose groping. Strip me down for all I care.
Oh look, Japanese comedy regarding the recent US TSA madness. Don’t worry, the loud Americans will adjust soon and this will all seem normal in a few months.
Typhoon Juan Forces Us to Evacuate Marikina Monday Morning
We have been monitoring good old Pag-Asa website and see the movement of Typhoon Juan dragging its feet to 20 kph as it hits land and now moving west south west. Now my engineering angles tell me where west south west is headed and it seems it may hit metro manila, marikina and other northern fringes of metro manila directly. It’s enough to make us pack up our investment in children and move our most precious investments, our children to higher ground.
I woke up before 5am and saw the satellite map. The typhoon had changed course to west south west. It will not just graze the top of luzon, the eye was at a level of central luzon. And with west south west movement and still on the ocean, there is a good probability it will go south even further and hit Rizal, Marikina as we are first in line of the conglomerate city Metro Manila.
My wife took all her harps up the 2nd floor. I put the desktop server computer in my car. Our precious kids were taken to their grandparents’ condominium in The Fort. Some maids chose to stay. It’s their choice.
I’m now in my office in Cubao starting the day. I have a meeting with a customer at 10am. Lots of things to do in the office today.
The kids are hopefully safer there and I’ll probably sleep at the condominium with them tonight.
Better to be safe than sorry!
West South west Means Typhoon Juan may hit us directly
Flight Attendants Dancing to Lady Gaga Tune in Cebu Pacific Airlines
Oh wow! Â Super hot! Â These flight safety instructions are the best I’ve ever seen! Â I know now that every Cebu Pacific flight passenger will be fully briefed, all eyes on the flight attendants dancing to Lady Gaga’s tune. Â One thing’s for sure, the innovative management of Cebu Pacific is so serious on safety they cooked up this idea. Â And did I mention the flight attendants were pretty and sexy and and and….
Here is the video of the actual dance with a passenger taking an amateur video: “Something interesting happened on my cebu pacific flight this afternoon. the Flight Attendants suddenly burst into a dance!!! That was soooo cooool!!!
And here is another video of the Cebu Pacific flight attendance at dance practice.
“MAKE THIS VIRO – It IS the BEST edit – CHECK IT OUT
Coffee Tea or Dancing Flight Attendants Training Class with Karen Tracy Vitug dancing in the plane AND NOW FAMOUS – MIB Studios Re-Edit 2010 – Cebu Pacific Airlines – Dancing Flight attendants – Lady Ga Ga Just Dance – HOT & SEXY MAMA”
These are the best flight safety instructions demonstration in the whole world! Let’s see the other airlines jump into this trend!
I’m taking Cebu Pacific next time!